The Erlich Bachman Guide to Doing Business in Silicon Valley

"A cool company needs a cool logo," Erlich says of his harebrained scheme to get a street artist to make one for Pied Piper. "You think those guys over at Nucleus are hiring a convicted felon to paint a mural on their garage?"
Eventually the artist makes a logo so good even Nucleus feels envious.
Season one, episode five, "Signaling Risk"

HBO

2 of 5

Know your audience.

"I know what binary is. Jesus Christ! I memorized the hexadecimal times tables when I was 14 writing machine code, okay? Ask me what nine times F is. It's fleventyfive. I don't need you telling me what binary is, just like I don't need you thinking about soup or taking pictures of it. I need you thinking about apps, software, and websites. This is Silicon Valley, not ... Paris, Texas ... which is where Campbell's Soup is."
A good idea is worthless if it doesn't appeal to the right people.
Season one, episode one, "Minimum Viable Product"

HBO

3 of 5

Be ready to fight.

"We need to do what any animal in nature does when it's cornered: act erratically and blindly lash out at everything around us."
So what if Pied Piper isn't as flashy as Nucleus? If you believe in your product, investors will too.
Season one, episode eight, "Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency"

HBO

4 of 5

Own your culture.

"Our whole corporate culture is that we don't have a corporate culture."
Pied Piper may look lazy, but the team gets things done. Why fix something when it's not broken?
Season one, episode five, "Signaling Risk"

HBO

5 of 5

Be an asshole.

"That's why he's a billionaire. Because he knows how and when to be an asshole."
After a meeting with Peter Gregory goes poorly, Erlich gives Richard some hard-won advice: Stop being a tool, and start being an asshole. If Richard can't fathom the worth of his ideas, no one will.
Season one, episode two, "The Cap Table"

Jill KrasnySenior WriterJill Krasny is a senior writer for Esquire where she covers lifestyle, books and general news.

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